The Petroleum Industry Has a Long and Proud History for Developing The
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The petroleum industry has a long and proud history for developing the technology and processes to ensure that the increasingly insatiable energy needs of the world are met. In the early years it was actually necessary to find applications for oil and gas. The modern industry began with the drilling of the Edwin Drake well in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. This was the beginning of a petroleum industry which had to: 1) develop reliable methods to explore for oil and gas, 2) learn how to safely transport hydrocarbons long distances, and 3) innovate methods for refining oil into an expanding number of products. This presentation will address the early years in the petroleum industry, along with the important events which either stimulated or diminished growth in the oil and gas sector. Then, it is important to understand a number of technologies – many created by PESA member companies -- that made oil and gas production possible during the last few decades. The term “necessity is the mother of invention” is nowhere more apropos than in the oil and gas industry. The importance of the next generation of technology is also a component of this presentation. In 1950 there were approximately 2.5 billion people on the planet. Today there is almost three times that number. By 2040 – 25 years from now – there will be over 9 billion people!! This data confirms the importance of the oil and gas industry, to provide petroleum and products to a growing population that will depend on us to meet their energy needs. 3 Dr. Kenneth Medlock is with the James Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston. He analyzes various sectors of the petroleum industry. The chart above depicts a satellite photo composite of the various continents at night. Shown in the chart is: 1) areas where energy is being consumed on the planet (e.g. white lights) and 2) the presence of hydrocarbons around the globe (e.g. colored areas). It is evident from the chart that where hydrocarbons are produced on the planet are frequently not in the same locations as where they are consumed. This situation raises a number of issues such as: 1) supply/demand imbalances and disruptions, 2) geopolitical stresses, 3) fluctuations in hydrocarbon prices, 4) significant transportation costs, 5) requirements for greater exploration and production technologies (e.g. LNG liquefaction and regasification, exploring in increasingly harsh environments like the Arctic, and having the flexibility to handle a range of sweet and sour hydrocarbons). 4 Schlumberger has a wonderful composite chart using data from several sources (above) which is updated on a regular basis, and provides a visual summary of the important metrics from the petroleum industry, and their influence on exploration and production activity over time. It is important to look at world production capacity over the years versus global consumption. As shown in this chart the supply/demand relationship is the primary driver for oil prices around the world. Obviously, higher oil prices drive higher exploration and production expenditures around the world. The recent oil price decline is not depicted in this slide as efforts to find a later version of this chart have been unsuccessful. Early information on petroleum recovery and usage is scarce around the world, and not completely reliable. In the chart above the “rig” shown on the left side was supposedly developed in China around 300 A.D. and had a depth rating of approximately 800 feet. It is highly unlikely that such a depth capability existed at that time, but the design is interesting and features a “one water buffalo” power plant. The drawing on the right is of the first well drilled (versus dug) in the United States. But it was not for oil; it was for brine, which was used for curing foodstuffs as the U.S. population moved westward. The well was drilled in 1806-1808 on the right bank of the Kanawha River near Charleston, West Virginia. Drilled by the Ruffner Brothers, the well was started in 1806 and completed in 1808 – taking 18 months to drill. Having a total depth of 53 feet, the average penetration rate for the well was three feet per month! (Using today’s drilling technology the entire Ruffner Brothers well could be drilled in seconds!) The concept of bamboo pipelines to carry brine and natural gas was an intriguing technology that was developed by the Chinese in the late 1800’s. The pipelines were placed over producing wells, with the wellhead pressure utilized to pump the brine and gas through the line to the point of consumption. Reportedly, some of these pipelines were 70+ kilometers long! By the 1700’s wells near Sichuan, China were approximately 1,000 feet deep, and by 1835 a Shanghai well was (reportedly) the first in the world to reach a total depth of 3,000 feet. This is astounding in that the first oil well drilled in the United States was drilled in 1859 and was only 69.5 feet deep! As shown in the chart, we have come a long way from using oil seeps that flow to the ground as a source for petroleum. One of the first drilling technologies according to early records was the Chinese bamboo drilling rig introduced around 300 AD which was described earlier. A significant advancement in drilling technology was the development of cable tools. Shown in the lower left picture above, this technology allowed the Chinese to develop a number of tools for drilling, cleaning out the wellbore, solving hole collapse issues, etc. By the late 1800’s rigs in the United States were typically powered by steam engines, and had an array of drill bits and other downhole tools. They were capable of drilling faster and deeper which was needed as many shallow fields throughout the country had already been exploited. 8 There are crossroads in any industry, and the petroleum sector was no different in the early years. In the 1850’s the whaling industry was in full swing, with a particularly strong market in Hawaii due to the concentration of whales there. But the beginning of the end for the whaling industry started in 1859 with the drilling of the Edwin Drake well in Pennsylvania (which will be described later in this presentation). One of the early obstacles for the petroleum industry was creating enough viable applications so that the increasing oil production would be matched with increasing demand. In the early days oil was used as a lubricant, and some enterprising individuals determined that by boiling the oil the “distillate” could be used for “medicinal purposes”, although use as an alcoholic beverage was quite common. Obviously, many other applications for petroleum were developed over the decades to increase the demand for oil. The bottom picture is of an early refinery in the United States. The main equipment was a fractional distillation tower for separating the various components of the oil by slowly raising the temperature and taking off the various “fractions”. Additional applications which accelerated the development of the petroleum industry will be discussed next. The invention of a good kerosene lamp (developed by a Polish pharmacist in New York City) was a significant boost to petroleum demand in the late 1800’s. Earlier lamps produced significant particulates which often blackened in the lampshade, rendering the lamps useless. The first boom in the petroleum industry started in 1859 with the drilling of the Edwin Drake well. Hearing about the success of the Drake well a number of people in Pennsylvania decided to start their own exploration programs. Over the next few years as petroleum production grew there was a shortage of whisky barrels to store the oil. The fundamentals of supply and demand played out and for a period of time the value of the whiskey barrels exceeded the value of the oil contained in them!! The first downturn in the petroleum industry occurred in 1878 with the introduction of the electric light bulb by Thomas A. Edison. Cities went through a process of “electrification” whereby kerosene lamps on streets and in homes were replaced with electric lights. But this first downturn was short lived as the next big trend was 10 the introduction of the automobile and steam engines. Edwin Drake was a laid off railroad conductor who was hired by a small oil company to drill a well in Titusville, Pennsylvania -- where oil was known to seep to the surface. Shown in the left picture above is the first oil well drilled in the United States. (As stated previously, the first actual well drilled in the United States was in 1806 – for brine.) Many in the town of Titusville were skeptical of the drilling effort and called it “Drake’s Folly”. When the well reached a depth of 69.5 feet the crew went home for the day. The next morning when Drake returned he saw oil – 35 barrels in the bottom of the well! After that the well averaged 10 barrels per day, and is considered to be the start of the modern petroleum industry. Drake was a significant factor in the early days of the industry, and although he lost his fortunes several times over, the state of Pennsylvania provided him with special (retirement) compensation in recognition of the tremendous contribution he made. The next important event was in 1901 when drilling around Beaumont, Texas paid off in a big way when the Lucas 1 well hit, and overnight tripled oil reserves in the United States. Called “Spindletop” the production from this area totaled millions of barrels over the last 100+ years.